Phew, this is my final blog post for the summer session with Web 2.0 EME 6414! It really has been a productive and interactive past six weeks... I can now say from among a number of online platforms, that I have experience working with blogs, navigating Twitter, and joining the LinkedIn community (this last account mentioned is certainly one I plan to keep building on through my profile content and connections.)
There were definitely a handful of interesting tools and communities to observe and also participate in during this course. I appreciated checking out other classmates work and topics of interest as we completed assignments. Even noticing what other classmates are doing for their summer has been a cool way to interact through our course's blog page and Twitter hashtag.
Looking back now from the first week getting started with EME 6414, these course assigments and online tools did their jobs pretty well of keep everyone connected and interacting online. Regardless of being in so many spread out places for travel and summer plans, we seemed to stay in the loop and share along the way as we went through content each week. One of my hopes and intended goals for taking this course was to understand how education can be developed and enhanced while using Web 2.0. I feel far more confident and informed now as I move forward with some of the many online tools, resources, and communities that are available for this purpose. Educators, professionals, and social networks each have an established online presence that will continue growing as we navigate further with Web 2.0. It is pretty exciting just to be part of such a quickly developing network!
Friday, August 3, 2018
International Usage of Social Media
Another one of the topics covered about Web 2.0 (going back to during Week 5) was international perspectives. Social media has such an expansive reach now that it is becoming very interesting to see interactions occurring among international communities. I appreciate being able to keep up with friends online who no longer live in the US, especially through communications supported on Facebook and Instagram.
During the previous course week, we discussed how to best design content for international users. Social media-based learning and performance support may be set up differently to address a number of influencing factors. For example, there may be some language barriers or different cultural expectations being held for interactivity. The general level of accessibilty online and which specific tools are available will also vary for users with international settings. Additionally, the local time zones in regions may be quite different depending on where users are located.
Keeping all of these considerations in mind is not a simple but certainly realistic task necessary for instructors and instructional designers alike. The content being provided to learners (whether it is done formally for course credit/training or is informal learning to support work performance) should be made clear and accessible. Some educational and job support content can even be made further individualized if needed. One example I recall coming up regularly of this was while I worked in Title I schools. Many families there had their young children learning English as first time speakers. Teachers would provide an extra copy of the class newsletters we sent home weekly in Spanish to accommodate the communication in both languages.
During the previous course week, we discussed how to best design content for international users. Social media-based learning and performance support may be set up differently to address a number of influencing factors. For example, there may be some language barriers or different cultural expectations being held for interactivity. The general level of accessibilty online and which specific tools are available will also vary for users with international settings. Additionally, the local time zones in regions may be quite different depending on where users are located.
Keeping all of these considerations in mind is not a simple but certainly realistic task necessary for instructors and instructional designers alike. The content being provided to learners (whether it is done formally for course credit/training or is informal learning to support work performance) should be made clear and accessible. Some educational and job support content can even be made further individualized if needed. One example I recall coming up regularly of this was while I worked in Title I schools. Many families there had their young children learning English as first time speakers. Teachers would provide an extra copy of the class newsletters we sent home weekly in Spanish to accommodate the communication in both languages.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Social Media Presence and Privacy
One of the articles I read this final week of the summer Web 2.0 course was actually written by two Florida State professors from the Instructional Systems program: Vanessa Dennen and Kerry Burner. The journal article Identity, context collapse, and Facebook use in higher education: putting presence and privacy at odds is from 2017 in Distance Education's online journal. This was interesting reading following a previous week in our course already discussing context collapse (an idea referring to how a personal identity can overlap in social, professional, and educational spheres, etc.)
One of the points initially expressed is that the findings of their study related to how college student participants viewed using Facebook-- specifically whether it was for social or more academically focused purposes. The study followed how students felt this social network could support personal and social identity for performance in learning and interaction with classmates and instructors. It appeared that their findings showed what I also expected to be the case: students had mixed feelings about Facebook being used formally in a school context. I tend to use Facebook primarily for interacting socially with friends and family first, then some selectively more professional or academic interactions follow up afterwards.
Online social presence and identity is certainly something that individuals choose (or not) to regulate for specific settings and purposes, depending on their different environments and networks. This idea of context collapse is supported by the journal article's description of how students would alter their privacy settings and censor their Facebook content to avoid an overlap occuring among different social or academic networks. "Students may use Facebook to support informal learning, but view it primarily as a social tool (Madge, Meek, Wellens, & Hooley, 2009)." I know many people who feel this way as well and agree there is value in personally monitoring what and how much is being posted within your online accounts.
One of the points initially expressed is that the findings of their study related to how college student participants viewed using Facebook-- specifically whether it was for social or more academically focused purposes. The study followed how students felt this social network could support personal and social identity for performance in learning and interaction with classmates and instructors. It appeared that their findings showed what I also expected to be the case: students had mixed feelings about Facebook being used formally in a school context. I tend to use Facebook primarily for interacting socially with friends and family first, then some selectively more professional or academic interactions follow up afterwards.
Online social presence and identity is certainly something that individuals choose (or not) to regulate for specific settings and purposes, depending on their different environments and networks. This idea of context collapse is supported by the journal article's description of how students would alter their privacy settings and censor their Facebook content to avoid an overlap occuring among different social or academic networks. "Students may use Facebook to support informal learning, but view it primarily as a social tool (Madge, Meek, Wellens, & Hooley, 2009)." I know many people who feel this way as well and agree there is value in personally monitoring what and how much is being posted within your online accounts.
Week 6 Tool: Nuclino
It's the final week of this Web 2.0 summer course, EME 6414! This week's overall focus is considering privacy and ethics in online learning environments. In one way we are reflecting back on the past six weeks summer session. In another way, this last week of the course is also about deciding how to take the content we covered and now move forward with it.
One of the final tools being featured this week is called Nuclino. Nuclino is a tool I had not used before this week but looks like an app that could be pretty useful in the future. Nuclino works as a knowledge sharing tool to help team members share content within their group. Members can collaborate, organize, and update the content as they are working. It also has cloud based storage to stay updated in real time.
Our course group pages on Nuclino feature the "Best of EME 6414" resources we have collected during the past six weeks. There are different tab areas to pin useful articles and other related resource links online. Assignments students have completed during this course are also being posted in an additional part of Nuclino that collects some of our example work. I added in to the article resources that are listed for Twitter with a journal article describing a Twitter case study I had read and discussed during a previous week.
I surely just saw the surface of Nuclino here... It looks like there are even features available in the app to create wikis, meeting agendas, and workspaces for sharing design ideas among team members.
One of the final tools being featured this week is called Nuclino. Nuclino is a tool I had not used before this week but looks like an app that could be pretty useful in the future. Nuclino works as a knowledge sharing tool to help team members share content within their group. Members can collaborate, organize, and update the content as they are working. It also has cloud based storage to stay updated in real time.
Our course group pages on Nuclino feature the "Best of EME 6414" resources we have collected during the past six weeks. There are different tab areas to pin useful articles and other related resource links online. Assignments students have completed during this course are also being posted in an additional part of Nuclino that collects some of our example work. I added in to the article resources that are listed for Twitter with a journal article describing a Twitter case study I had read and discussed during a previous week.
I surely just saw the surface of Nuclino here... It looks like there are even features available in the app to create wikis, meeting agendas, and workspaces for sharing design ideas among team members.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Social media case study with Twitter
Although I only have this preview version, here is an interesting Twitter case study that I thought to share here. I am also planning to add it onto our EME 6414 Diigo course group page. In this 2013 journal article, Lin, Hoffman, and Borengasser, described how higher education students consider using Twitter as a classroom tool. The researchers held a qualitative case study to examine the results of three class settings.
The authors describe how students shared their self usage and interest using Twitter as well as how they prefer to participate in this social media platform. Another point made is that Twitter is traditionally considered to be a social tool and will need to be integrated correctly within courses for educational settings. Some areas for further progress to made while using Twitter might include orivacy, modeling, and specific course designs.
Right underneath the article's preview are actually a number of interesting references listed. Many of these links also identify studies that were done using Twitter. However, a number of them relate to how faculty members may be using Twitter in addition. Social media certainly is a wide reaching, popular, and commonly available tool now. I think the recent opportunities that are forming to better use so many platforms during formal and informal learning situations are pretty cool! Hopefully many students and educators can both benefit from adapting to implement better instructional strategies with Web 2.0.
The authors describe how students shared their self usage and interest using Twitter as well as how they prefer to participate in this social media platform. Another point made is that Twitter is traditionally considered to be a social tool and will need to be integrated correctly within courses for educational settings. Some areas for further progress to made while using Twitter might include orivacy, modeling, and specific course designs.
Right underneath the article's preview are actually a number of interesting references listed. Many of these links also identify studies that were done using Twitter. However, a number of them relate to how faculty members may be using Twitter in addition. Social media certainly is a wide reaching, popular, and commonly available tool now. I think the recent opportunities that are forming to better use so many platforms during formal and informal learning situations are pretty cool! Hopefully many students and educators can both benefit from adapting to implement better instructional strategies with Web 2.0.
Social Media and Instructional Design
"Social Media and Instructional Design" is currently part of the weekly readings list. It also happens to be an excerpt from one of the chapters of the Trends and Issues in Instructional Design textbook for a course I just took this past spring. The reading is authored by my Web 2.0 professor and edited by Reiser and Dempsey. Being familiar with this section already, I remebered some of the good quotes it had about this emerging field. "These networks have for many become an indispensible part of everyday life, guiding activities both at work and at home and connecting individuals with other people and information on an as-needed basis."
The passage continues to explain how higher education is working to incoporate social media inside and out of learning environments: "For example, it has been used to support marketing and recruitment, student outreach, and extracurricular activities. In the learning context, social media use may be institutionally prompted or encouraged, or initiated by the individual instructor or instructional designer." There is a typically a push for social media usage to integrate currently used technology and participate in instructional trends in hope to keep students motivated.
Another valuable part included in this reading passage is the table of popular social media tools with educational purposes. This table provided a lot of helpful information while I was also making a group presentation about Online Learning Trends in another course I took this past spring. It lays out some specific instances with details about a variety of social media tools being used in education.
There are certainly further examples than just the tools listed here... some of these main highligthed social media tools in education include: Facebook (student organization or course groups,) YouTube (video tutorials,) MOOCs (massive online open courses,) LinkedIn (professional networking,) Blogs (professional topics and discussion,) and Twitter (organizational news/updates and communication.)
The passage continues to explain how higher education is working to incoporate social media inside and out of learning environments: "For example, it has been used to support marketing and recruitment, student outreach, and extracurricular activities. In the learning context, social media use may be institutionally prompted or encouraged, or initiated by the individual instructor or instructional designer." There is a typically a push for social media usage to integrate currently used technology and participate in instructional trends in hope to keep students motivated.
Another valuable part included in this reading passage is the table of popular social media tools with educational purposes. This table provided a lot of helpful information while I was also making a group presentation about Online Learning Trends in another course I took this past spring. It lays out some specific instances with details about a variety of social media tools being used in education.
There are certainly further examples than just the tools listed here... some of these main highligthed social media tools in education include: Facebook (student organization or course groups,) YouTube (video tutorials,) MOOCs (massive online open courses,) LinkedIn (professional networking,) Blogs (professional topics and discussion,) and Twitter (organizational news/updates and communication.)
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Week 4 Tools: Part 2
Google Classroom is an additional Web 2.0 tool to try out this week in EME 6414. I looked around within the program to preview some of their cool educational features, especially on the app available with Google Play. They offer a free service that educators and students can use through their Google account to connect with each other. It helps keep their course content and assignments all organized online and in Google Drive. Instructors can make announcements and hold class discussions. It does look pretty successful with just under 70,000 user reviews showing. Many of those appear to be written with some positive remarks.
Google + actually has an online community based on Google Classroom Education called Teachers Helping Teachers. THT was one of the communities I actually selected to observe then discuss in my Community Observation assignment. I can see how this group has a hand in Google Classroom clearly from the ideas, discussions, and resource sharing that is regularly being posted. This communication displayed some results from using this app in a variety of educational settings (whether for K-12 grades, higher education, or international purposes.)
Another cool thing to see about Google Classroom and their related online community was the professional development ideas and opportunities being posted in the Teachers Helping Teachers group. This included help forum postings, activity ideas for adult educators, linked video or image media, and other resources like online sessions held to cover certain professional education topics. Either way, both the Google Classroom app and its corresponding online community appear to support instructors and better equip them and their students, especially in technology-based situations. If only there was this kind of organization and enrichment provided more to face to face classroom educators and administrators!
Google + actually has an online community based on Google Classroom Education called Teachers Helping Teachers. THT was one of the communities I actually selected to observe then discuss in my Community Observation assignment. I can see how this group has a hand in Google Classroom clearly from the ideas, discussions, and resource sharing that is regularly being posted. This communication displayed some results from using this app in a variety of educational settings (whether for K-12 grades, higher education, or international purposes.)
Another cool thing to see about Google Classroom and their related online community was the professional development ideas and opportunities being posted in the Teachers Helping Teachers group. This included help forum postings, activity ideas for adult educators, linked video or image media, and other resources like online sessions held to cover certain professional education topics. Either way, both the Google Classroom app and its corresponding online community appear to support instructors and better equip them and their students, especially in technology-based situations. If only there was this kind of organization and enrichment provided more to face to face classroom educators and administrators!
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